Small plane crash-lands near Eastridge Shopping mall

Two people taken to hospital for precaution

Federal Aviation Administration officials are investigating what caused a single-engine Cessna headed for the Hayward airport to crash at the Eastridge mall in San Jose on Saturday afternoon.

No one was seriously injured in the crash, which left the white plane sitting atop short trees in the parking lot just across from Reid-Hillview Airport.

Despite the miraculous landing, 77-year-old pilot Richard Groger, a retired San Francisco division fire chief, said Saturday evening: "I wish we had landed without any damage to the aircraft. It's a total catastrophe. I'm not going to fly again. At least on this plane."

He laughed a bit when asked whether this was the scariest experience in his life.

"No, this wasn't the scariest. I've been in a lot of scary places as a firefighter. You just pick your best spot once you can't get to a field and you just think about safety."

But he was grateful that he and his wife, Mary, 77, were only taken to the hospital as a precaution, and neither suffered major injuries. They were picked up by their son at the site and driven to the Hayward airport, where they had planned to land before having engine troubles, and where their car was waiting.

The couple was returning from vacationing in Palm Springs when "the pilot reported experiencing engine troubles not too far from Hayward and tried to make it to Reid-Hillview," said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor.

The crash was reported at 12:33 p.m.

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and there were "no injuries, no damages to structures," said San Jose police officer Jermaine Thomas.

Raghav Samyal, who is training for his pilot's license, said he heard over the air-to-air radio chatter that "they ran out of fuel and glided as much as possible."

At the Airport Shoppe, just across Tully Road, owner Phoebe Peasley was surprised to hear of the crash.

"For heaven's sake, no one person said a thing, with all these pilots coming in," said Peasley, who noted she hadn't heard any sirens.

A plane in a tree sounded like proper procedure for an emergency landing, she said. "That's the first thing we're taught: land in a tree," she said. "It won't hurt you or the tree."